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Good question. Does it really matter? Are politicians any different than the rest of us? For that matter, are celebrities of any type different? No, they’re not. The only difference is in the assumed higher standards of conduct assigned to these people when they become public figures, especially politicians. I don’t expect higher levels of behavior though. People are people.

We all know too well about how our politicians are finding themselves mixed up with “call girls” recently, their aides or random women in Argentina, which leads to them ruining their marriages and making themselves look like total pervs. It happens every day here in the U.S., and we get it from all media forums.

A similar situation is currently happening in Italy.

Silvio Berlusconi is Italy’s prime minister and was recently sold out by Patrizia D’Addario, his “escort girl,” whom he spent the night of the American election with at his home in Rome. D’Addario even claims to have audio and video proving that they were together that night.

There is one difference here between what American politicians deal with in this situation and what Mr. Prime Minister is dealing with in Italy: we actually hear about it here.

According to the Times, Berlusconi owns Italy’s three main television stations, and none of them are saying anything about this entire situation.

The state broadcaster, RIA, is placing a severely low emphasis on Berlusconi’s shortfalls and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to budge.

Augusto Minzolini, the news editor of TGI (RAI’s main news service) was quoted this week saying that TGI will not run any stories that “lack evidence.”

I guess the evidence is in the eye of the beholder.

The best line from Minzolini, by far, is: “In this story full of illusions, more or less reliable witnesses and personal rancor, there is still no sure news, nor any evidence that a crime has been committed involving the premier or his aides.”